10. Had we not delayed, we could have been there and back twice by now!”
11. Israel their father then told them: “If it must be so, then do this: Put some of the land’s best products in your baggage and take them down to the man as gifts: some balm and honey, gum and resin, and pistachios and almonds.
12. Also take double the money along, for you must return the amount that was put back in the mouths of your bags; it may have been a mistake.
13. Take your brother, too, and be off on your way back to the man.
14. May God Almighty grant you mercy in the presence of the man, so that he may let your other brother go, as well as Benjamin. As for me, if I am to suffer bereavement, I shall suffer it.”
15. So the men took those gifts and double the money and Benjamin. They made their way down to Egypt and presented themselves before Joseph.
16. When Joseph saw them and Benjamin, he told his steward, “Take the men into the house, and have an animal slaughtered and prepared, for they are to dine with me at noon.”
17. Doing as Joseph had ordered, the steward conducted the men to Joseph’s house.
18. But they became apprehensive when they were led to his house. “It must be,” they thought, “on account of the money put back in our bags the first time, that we are taken inside—in order to attack us and take our donkeys and seize us as slaves.”